Volkswagen Golf GTE in Australia for evaluation and training

Volkswagen has brought an electrified Golf GTE to Australia for evaluation and technical training, the company has confirmed with CarAdvice.

These photos, although showing no local registration plates, were snapped in Queensland this week by CarAdvice reader Patrick Ingvorsen, showing the plug-in hybrid EV hatch parked up between trips away from the company’s New South Wales headquarters.

Volkswagen Australia had previously revealed it was “working hard on a 2018 introduction” for the GTE, but local communications manager Paul Pottinger today confirmed the company is now further advanced in making its case for a local launch.

CarAdvicedrove the GTE in Europe last year, with Volkswagen inviting Australian media to sample the car it had by that time confirmed hopes for.

The vehicle spied in Queensland is a pre-facelift Golf 7, but it is of course the updated Golf 7.5 version (below) that we would see here in Australian showrooms.

Volkswagen is still to reveal its hand on the matter of timing, pricing and specifications, although we can likely expect the hatch to touch down sometime in 2018.

A refresher: the Golf GTE combines the company’s familiar 110kW/250Nm 1.4-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine and a 75kW/330Nm electric motor, fed by a series of lithium-ion batteries stored beneath the boot floor.

Combined outputs are 150kW and 350Nm, with drive sent to the front wheels via a six-speed DSG dual-clutch transmission.

Volkswagen claims an electric-only driving range of 50 kilometres, at speeds up to 130km/h. Fuel consumption for the petrol-electric hybrid EV is listed at 1.5L/100km on the European test cycle, and a 0-100km/h time of 7.6 seconds is claimed.

It is worth noting that, thanks to its hefty battery packs, the GTE is 270kg heavier than its GTI hot-hatch sibling.

Watch for more on the GTE to come in the months ahead, and catch our ongoing coverage at the links below.